Say Aloha to the New Longest Flight in the U.S.

America’s newest wicked-long flight is the Boston-to-Honolulu route from Hawaiian Airlines, which is now the longest flight in the country at 5,095 miles. And it’s not a fluke—the new Hawaiian flight is the longest nonstop route in the United States ever. The journey takes a whopping 11 hours 40 minutes when flying to the islands, but it will only take 10 hours and 15 minutes to get back to reality.

In a release, Hawaiian Airlines said service will begin April 4, 2019, and notes this is “before Patriots’ Day on April 15, and timed to offer winter-weary New Englanders a vacation of wonder and fun where they can experience all the best that Hawaii has to offer.”

For non-New Englanders, Patriots’ Day is a big Monday holiday in Boston. It’s the day of the Boston Marathon, the Red Sox play an 11:00 a.m. game at Fenway, and for most public schools it’s the first day of spring break. Unfortunately, the weekend before that week (April 12 to 14) and the weekend after (April 19 to 21) are blacked out from Hawaiian Airlines’ introductory fare of $617 each way, so that wonder and fun are going to cost you. But fair play to Hawaiian for matching its introductory fares to Boston’s 617 area code.

The Longest, and Only, Hawaii Nonstop from Boston

More importantly, this will be Boston’s only nonstop flight to Hawaii. Hawaiian notes in its release that Boston is the largest domestic market without nonstop service, despite the fact that “nearly 500 people fly between eastern New England and the islands on any given day.”

More broadly, this is the second noteworthy expansion of service to Hawaii, following Southwest‘s decision to finally serve the islands from the West Coast. With Hawaiian’s announcement, it’s refreshing to see the East Coast getting some attention, too.